Business consultancy Positive Solutions was commissioned to review the effectiveness of the programmes, which took effect from 2012. Overall participants and stakeholders agreed their structure and purposes remained appropriate and relevant. They also agreed that the concept of arts leadership was useful but it needed to be defined or re-stated.

Will there be change to the Kahikatea programme?

The Arts Council decided Creative New Zealand should review and refine the assessment criteria for the programme’s three purposes. Any changes will be applied from February 2017 in time for the call for proposals which close in May.

Will there be change to the Tōtara programme?

There will be no changes to the programme and the Arts Council has agreed that all current key roles will remain in place until the end of 2020. When current agreements end, organisations filling the roles will be offered funding renewals of one to three years. This will be subject to satisfactory performance, availability of funding and other standard conditions.

There will be no call for proposals in 2017, 2018 or 2019 unless there is funding available and the Arts Council agrees to seek proposals for unfulfilled roles in contemporary Ngā Toi Māori, Pacific heritage arts and choral music. In that case proposals would be sought in 2018 for funding in 2019 and 2020.

What’s next?

As a result of the review Creative New Zealand will be doing follow-up work on aspects of the Tōtara programme including:

clarifying its expectation of what ‘leadership’ means in relation to the sector. All Tōtara and Kahikatea organisations will be surveyed in October and the results will be considered prior to preparing funding agreements from July 2017

working with local authorities in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin to clarify funding formulae guidelines. This will take place in 2017 with recommendations brought to the Arts Council for approval in 2018.

Creative New Zealand is grateful to the many individuals and organisations who gave of their time and expertise to participate in the review. The next review will be in 2019/20 financial year in line with preparation for Creative New Zealand’s next strategic plan.